"Orthodox No. 21" Painting

CONTEMPORARY IKONOGRAPHY: The Orthodox Series: The art of Dimitrios Tsouris is the art of contemplation. meditation and reflection. While his paintings are non-figurative but expressive, there is a demand of absorbed and prolonged attention to his work. Far from being confined to simple oblongs and squares, his obsession with these shapes, are celebrated as homage as liberators, not confiners or constrainers in an aesthetic engagement. The infinite variables of chromatic statements, generate a tremendous spectrum of feelings and emotions as the colours synthesize and fuse as reflection in the retina of the eye. The intended shape and form of his paintings work towards the goal of proportional rightness, together with the sense of colour, allows for emotional possibilities of ancient Byzantine forms and colours. Inspiration and creative outflowing originates from a love that emanates out of the Mediterranean Greek Orthodoxy, of liturgy, plain song, incense and iconography. Among the most striking things of the liturgical worship of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the uniformity of its form which is symbolically laid within the work. The art within his work is precisely in rendering the 'presence' on canvas as 'written' in traditional Greek iconograpy. In essence, an impossible task but undaunted, mainly to the sheer excitement of Orthodoxy and to the symbolism within, he continue to explore all aspects and nuance of the notion of 'presence', (Greek. 'παρουσία'). The present work is devoid of overt clues and is mostly confined to a single formal theme. No doubt this latter factor allows for imperceptive comments from impatient critics and viewers. The art is that of contemplation, which demands absorbed and prolonged attention. The apparent obsession with squares and oblongs celebrate homage as liberators, not confiners. The infinitely variable chromatic statements generate a tremendous spectrum of feelings and emotions from the most sombre to the most vivid. He likes to think of his work aligned with the Haiku process of poetry, the compression of means and the total concentration on a single nuance of feeling. Formal design and proportional rightness gives support to the emotional colour juxtaposition.